Joss Whedon not letting Avengers success stop his web series love

Joss Whedon not letting Avengers success stop his web series love
Dr Horrible - a smash hit online

Fans of Dr Horrible's Sing-a-long blog rejoice, Joss Whedon has insisted that the ludicrous amount of money made by The Avengers Assemble will not stop him making more series for the internet.

Joss Whedon, the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Firefly and the forthcoming SHIELD series, has been a king among geeks for about as long as the internet has existed.

But with the likes of The Avengers Assemble making him one of Hollywood's hottest directors, you might have feared that his scripting duties will no longer be focused on passion projects like internet hit Dr Horrible.

Passion projects

However, in an interview with Deadline, Whedon insists that the success of Dr Horrible has convinced him that he should be doing more for the internet, and that he will not be focusing purely on the silver screen and TV.

"Dr Horrible changed everything for me," he said. "We started it because of the Writer's Strike. And I watched other people making other original shows. I tried to partner with various people from Silicon Valley and that never goes anywhere.

"Finally I was like, let's just do this. And it was a monster hit. The payback for the amount that we did was absurd."

But not yet

Whedon has a micro-studio called Bellwether Pictures for his smaller offerings which include a version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing which is showing at this year's SXSW. He also has a clause in his big studio contract to ensure time for these passion projects.

"I got to a period where Dollhouse was done, Cabin In The Woods had disappeared, and we said now it's time to create Bellwether and control not only content but control distribution. Not in every instance. But we can say, is this for iTunes? Is this a miniseries?" he said

"With Much Ado we wanted to go the festival route because we want people to see this in a theatre. But the one caveat to exploding on the scene with Bellwether was, should something come along that is absolutely a dream project with people I trust that has a release date, that might get in the way.

"And then The Avengers happened. My contract with Marvel has a clause in it allowing me to do smaller internet ventures, should they come up."

But, before you put up the bunting, Whedon did admit that he's not focusing on Dr Horrible 2 quite yet, saying: "It's doubtful that in the time I have before I make Avengers 2 I'll have time to do anything besides make Avengers 2, because I want it to be better than Avengers."

Patrick Goss

Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content.  After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.